As a toddler mom, I know that much of the day is spent on snacks – choosing them, buying them, and feeding them to your kids. What if we used snack time as a teachable moment? With a little planning (and hopefully some help from your little one!) you can add literacy into snack time! Here are some of my favorite ideas.

  1. Alphabet Soup

Ok, this one might be more of a meal than a snack, but this Alphabet Soup is such a yummy way for your kids to learn letters! See if they can find the letter you name, or spell out their name and other words in between bites!

2. A is for Ant

Alphabet-themed snacks don’t have to mean buying a bunch of ingredients and spending your precious time in the kitchen arranging them before your toddler devours it! By forming the food into letters, you’ve got an easy way to expose your child to different letters, tell them their names, and teach their sounds! A is for Ant, B is for blueberries, C is for Carrots!

3. U is for Urchin

Such a simple and fun idea! This snack can even encourage your child’s language and fine motor skills. Talk about spatial concepts like “on”/”off”, “up”/”down”. Picking up those little cheerios will help your kids develop a pincer grasp and strengthen fine motor skills that they’ll need for other things like holding a pencil or getting dressed!

4. M is for M & M’s

Can’t get easier than this one! Point out those little M’s, talk about how to write the letter, then have your child practice drawing them or tracing on their own. Bonus: you can also use this sweet snack to teach colors (ask your child to group together the candy by color) and shapes (teaching that a round shape is called a circle)!

5. More Ideas!

Head over to Primary Playground to find tons of other kid friendly snack recipes for teaching the alphabet!

Amy Yacoub, MS, CCC-SLP | Speech Pathologist

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